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A new class of locally supported radial basis functions on the (unit) sphere is introduced by forming an infinite number of convolutions of ''isotropic finite elements''. The resulting up functions show useful properties: They are locally supported and are infinitely often differentiable. The main properties of these kernels are studied in detail. In particular, the development of a multiresolution analysis within the reference space of square--integrable functions over the sphere is given. Altogether, the paper presents a mathematically significant and numerically efficient introduction to multiscale approximation by locally supported radial basis functions on the sphere.

The Earth's surface is an almost perfect sphere. Deviations from its spherical shape are less than 0,4% of its radius and essentially arise from its rotation. All equipotential surfaces are nearly spherical, too. In consequence, multiscale modelling of geoscientifically relevant data on the sphere involving rotational symmetry of the trial functions used for the approximation plays an important role. In this paper we deal with isotropic kernel functions showing local support and (one-dimensional) polynomial structure (briefly called isotropic finite elements) for reconstructing square--integrable functions on the sphere. Essential tool is the concept of multiresolution analysis by virtue of the spherical up function. The main result is a tree algorithm in terms of (low--order) isotropic finite elements.

In this paper we introduce a multiscale technique for the analysis of deformation phenomena of the Earth. Classically, the basis functions under use are globally defined and show polynomial character. In consequence, only a global analysis of deformations is possible such that, for example, the water load of an artificial reservoir is hardly to model in that way. Up till now, the alternative to realize a local analysis can only be established by assuming the investigated region to be flat. In what follows we propose a local analysis based on tools (Navier scaling functions and wavelets) taking the (spherical) surface of the Earth into account. Our approach, in particular, enables us to perform a zooming-in procedure. In fact, the concept of Navier wavelets is formulated in such a way that subregions with larger or smaller data density can accordingly be modelled with a higher or lower resolution of the model, respectively.

This work is concerned with a nonlinear Galerkin method for solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equation on the sphere. It extends the work of Debussche, Marion,Shen, Temam et al. from one-dimensional or toroidal domains to the spherical geometry. In the first part, the method based on type 3 vector spherical harmonics is introduced and convergence is indicated. Further it is shown that the occurring coupling terms involving three vector spherical harmonics can be expressed algebraically in terms of Wigner-3j coefficients. To improve the numerical efficiency and economy we introduce an FFT based pseudo spectral algorithm for computing the Fourier coefficients of the nonlinear advection term. The resulting method scales with O(N^3), if N denotes the maximal spherical harmonic degree. The latter is demonstrated in an extensive numerical example.

Based on the well-known results of classical potential theory, viz. the limit and jump relations for layer integrals, a numerically viable and e±cient multiscale method of approximating the disturbing potential from gravity anomalies is established on regular surfaces, i.e., on telluroids of ellipsoidal or even more structured geometric shape. The essential idea is to use scale dependent regularizations of the layer potentials occurring in the integral formulation of the linearized Molodensky problem to introduce scaling functions and wavelets on the telluroid. As an application of our multiscale approach some numerical examples are presented on an ellipsoidal telluroid.

In modern geoscience, understanding the climate depends on the information about the oceans. Covering two thirds of the Earth, oceans play an important role. Oceanic phenomena are, for example, oceanic circulation, water exchanges between atmosphere, land and ocean or temporal changes of the total water volume. All these features require new methods in constructive approximation, since they are regionally bounded and not globally observable. This article deals with methods of handling data with locally supported basis functions, modeling them in a multiscale scheme involving a wavelet approximation and presenting the main results for the dynamic topography and the geostrophic flow, e.g., in the Northern Atlantic. Further, it is demonstrated that compressional rates of the occurring wavelet transforms can be achieved by use of locally supported wavelets.

In this work we introduce a new bandlimited spherical wavelet: The Bernstein wavelet. It possesses a couple of interesting properties. To be specific, we are able to construct bandlimited wavelets free of oscillations. The scaling function of this wavelet is investigated with regard to the spherical uncertainty principle, i.e., its localization in the space domain as well as in the momentum domain is calculated and compared to the well-known Shannon scaling function. Surprisingly, they possess the same localization in space although one is highly oscillating whereas the other one shows no oscillatory behavior. Moreover, the Bernstein scaling function turns out to be the first bandlimited scaling function known to the literature whose uncertainty product tends to the minimal value 1.

This work is dedicated to the wavelet modelling of regional and temporal variations of the Earth's gravitational potential observed by GRACE. In the first part, all required mathematical tools and methods involving spherical wavelets are introduced. Then we apply our method to monthly GRACE gravity fields. A strong seasonal signal can be identified, which is restricted to areas, where large-scale redistributions of continental water mass are expected. This assumption is analyzed and verified by comparing the time series of regionally obtained wavelet coefficients of the gravitational signal originated from hydrology models and the gravitational potential observed by GRACE. The results are in good agreement to previous studies and illustrate that wavelets are an appropriate tool to investigate regional time-variable effects in the gravitational field.

By means of the limit and jump relations of classical potential theory with respect to the vectorial Helmholtz equation a wavelet approach is established on a regular surface. The multiscale procedure is constructed in such a way that the emerging scalar, vectorial and tensorial potential kernels act as scaling functions. Corresponding wavelets are defined via a canonical refinement equation. A tree algorithm for fast decomposition of a complex-valued vector field given on a regular surface is developed based on numerical integration rules. By virtue of this tree algorithm, an effcient numerical method for the solution of vectorial Fredholm integral equations on regular surfaces is discussed in more detail. The resulting multiscale formulation is used to solve boundary-value problems for the time harmonic Maxwell's equations corresponding to regular surfaces.

This paper presents a method for approximating spherical functions from discrete data of a block-wise grid structure. The essential ingredients of the approach are scaling and wavelet functions within a biorthogonalisation process generated by locally supported zonal kernel functions. In consequence, geophysically and geodetically relevant problems involving rotation-invariant pseudodifferential operators become attackable. A multiresolution analysis is formulated enabling a fast wavelet transform similar to the algorithms known from one-dimensional Euclidean theory.